The One With George Stephanopoulos
"The One With George Stephanopoulos" is the fourth episode of the first season of Friends, which aired on October 13, 1994. The three guys head to a hockey game, while the girls have a sleepover and spy on their neighbor, George Stephanopoulos. Plot Ross and Monica notice that Phoebe has fallen asleep on the couch in Central Perk. Phoebe wakes up and explains that she didn't get any sleep last night as her grandmother's boyfriend was staying over. Apparently, they're both deaf and insecure in bed, so they kept her up all night. Monica offers to let her sleep over, and Phoebe accepts. Chandler and Joey enter the coffee house and greet Ross with tickets to that night's Rangers and Penguins hockey game. They pretend that the tickets are a birthday present, but Ross remarks that his birthday was seven months ago, realizing they had three tickets and could not decide on which one got to bring a date. Ross, looking at the tickets, then realizes that it is the anniversary of when he and Carol first slept together. He becomes depressed and tells the guys that he won't attend the game, opting to spend the night thinking about his ex-wife and her lesbian lover. Ross is about to go home, but Joey is able to convince Ross to attend the game by promising that they will buy him a big foam finger. Rachel comes over, excited after receiving her first-ever paycheck. However, her excitement is short-lived when she discovers that she has earned very little after taxes. Her friends try to cheer her up, saying that they are good earnings for a first job and that she will easily be able to live off of them. There is a pause, and they try to not-so-subtly help her by tipping generously. The guys leave for the hockey game. Leslie, Joanne, and Kiki, Rachel's old friends from Long Island, enter the coffee house. The four women reunite by hugging each other, screaming, and jumping up and down. Rachel's old friends are shocked to see her working; Joanne comments on how her waitress' apron makes her look like she is in a play. Rachel becomes wistful as she notices how heavily pregnant Leslie is, how thin and glamorous Kiki is, and when Joanne reveals that her father has made her a partner in his firm. They all scream excitedly again, and Kiki shows off her huge engagement ring. Phoebe and Monica are slightly startled by this side to Rachel, and they mock her and her old friends. The guys walk to Madison Square Garden for the hockey game. Ross keeps noticing things that remind him of Carol, and it begins to annoy on Joey and Chandler. At the game, Ross continues to reminisce. However, the game begins, and Ross starts to forget about Carol and root vigorously for the Rangers. All three guys are having a great time, until Ross is hit in the face with the hockey puck and they are forced to head to the emergency room. Back at Central Perk, Rachel wants to hear all of the gossip from back home. Kiki tells her that everyone is still talking about how she left Barry at the altar. This makes Rachel feel uncomfortable, so Joanne changes the subject by asking her when she is coming back home. Rachel laughs and tries to clarify that she is staying in the city for good. Her friends clearly disapprove, convinced that she would rather be an effortlessly rich Long Island girl back home. In the hospital waiting area, Ross waits to be seen. A tense Chandler approaches the snippy receptionist, Nurse Sizemore, to inform her they have been waiting for over an hour. However, she shuts the glass panel on him, so Chandler talks into the glass instead. Ross reveals that he actually lost his virginity to Carol, so he has only ever been with one woman. This comes as a shock to his friends, and Joey mentions how hockey was the wrong idea. Eventually, Ross finally gets to see a doctor, while Joey and Chandler discuss the fact that Ross has only ever been with one woman. Chandler starts off by saying that he thinks it is sweet and romantic, but he then admits that he thinks Ross is a freak. Ross returns to the waiting room with a piece of steel bandaged to his nose. The receptionist looks at him and laughs at how unattractive he looks. Ross wants the hockey puck as a souvenir, but a bratty child in the waiting area has it. Ross asks to have it back but the kid refuses. Ross tries to snatch it away, but it flies out of his grasp and knocks the receptionist out, which finally puts a smile on his face. Back at the apartment, Monica and Phoebe are preparing for their slumber party. Rachel enters, and starts drinking "Tiki Death Punch" straight from the blender after learning that it contains rum. The phone rings - it is Rachel's credit card company. Apparently, they have noticed some unusual activity on her account: she hasn't used her card for weeks. This sets Rachel off on a rant about her low income, her old friends' success and happiness, and how her life is falling apart in general. Monica and Phoebe try to her cheer up. None of their efforts work, and instead, Rachel manages to depress them, too. Monica eats a bowl of cookie dough and Phoebe drinks "Tiki Death Punch". Rachel apologizes for bringing them down with her, and answers the door as their pizza has arrived. She learns the delivery boy has brought them the wrong pizza; the one that he has brought was meant for George Stephanopoulos. Hearing this, Monica leaps up from the couch and runs to the door. The girls begin to swoon over President Clinton's gorgeous press secretary. They take the pizza and head to the balcony with binoculars, hoping to see George. They spy on George and his date. The lights go out and they assume that the couple has gone to have sex. The girls get drunk and start telling secrets. Monica announces that a vegetable pâté that she had once made for Phoebe, a vegetarian, was actually made from goose. Phoebe is disgusted and triumphantly tells Monica that she doesn't feel bad about sleeping with a guy a couple of hours after he and Monica had broken up. This upsets Monica, but Rachel takes it further by revealing that the valentine that she received from a boy was actually from her. She tells Phoebe that Monica was overweight when they were young. Monica retaliates by announcing that Rachel once peed her pants in seventh grade while she was laughing. Rachel and Monica start squabbling, but Phoebe stops them by spotting George through the binoculars. The girls beg him to drop his towel, and they are very happy when he does. In the closing credits, Joey and the girls are playing Twister. The credit card company calls Rachel again, so Chandler takes her place in the game so that she can speak to them. When asked about her not using her card in a while, Rachel tells them that she is fine, and saying it out loud finally makes her confident in her independence. Cast and Crew Main Cast Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green Courtney Cox - Monica Geller Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing David Schwimmer - Ross Geller Supporting Cast Mary Pat Gleason - Nurse Sizemore Benjamin Caya - Bratty Boy Michele Maika - Kiki Leesa Bryte - Leslie Sean Whalen - Pizza Guy Marianne Hagan - Joanne Crew Directed By: James Burrows Written By: Alexa Junge Trivia *This is the first time that Monica, Rachel and Phoebe are seen drunk in the series. **Although not much featured, Monica's drunkenness becomes a running gag with the rest of the gang in future episodes. Chandler, in particular, uses it as an excuse with other people when he and Monica don't keep plans. *Monica's relationship with Jason Hurley is later referenced in "The One Where Eddie Won't Go" (S2E19). *In the uncut DVD version of the episode, the girls also discuss what Chandler, Joey and Ross (much to Monica's protest) are like in bed. *In 2002, the National Hockey League added protective nets at all arenas in order to prevent injuries similar to Ross'. This came after a 13-year-old girl was struck by a puck and died two days later due to a ruptured brain artery. Goofs *In the beginning of the episode, when Phoebe is describing her grandmother being loud with her new boyfriend, Ross crosses his legs. When the camera angle changes his legs are uncrossed and he crosses them again. *Joey and Chandler want to take Ross for the game on 20 October, which is 2 days after his birthday, but he says his birthday was 7 months ago. *The Rangers did not host the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 20th for a hockey game at Madison Square Garden - in fact, the NHL was in the middle of a labor dispute that canceled many games at the start of the season including all of October's games. *In one scene, Ross's foam finger is there, in the next scene it is missing. *Monica's balcony is depicted as bigger than it usually appears in later episodes *On their way to the Ranger game at Madison Square Garden, the boys pass an M15 bus stop. The M15 runs down 2nd Avenue and up 1st Avenue, much farther east than Ross (who lives near 6th Avenue), Chandler, and Joey (who live near 7th) should be if they're going to the Garden (which is on 7th). 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